HISTORY OF PAINTING

IN

LOWER ITALY.

BOOK I.

FLORENTINE SCHOOL.

EPOCH I.

Origin of the revival of Painting-Association and methods of the old Painters-Series of Tuscan Artists before the time of Cimabue and Giotto.

SECTION I.

*

THAT there were painters in Italy, even during the rude ages, is attested not only by historians, but by pictures which have escaped the ravages of time. Rome retains several ancient specimens.† Passing over her cemeteries, which have handed down to us a number of Christian monuments, part in specimens of painted glass, scattered through our museums, and part in those of parietal histories, or walled mosaic, it will be sufficient to adduce two vast works, unrivalled by any others in Italy. The first is the series of the Popes, which, in order to prove the succession of the papal chair from the prince of the Apostles down to the time of St. Leo, this last holy pontiff caused to be painted; a work of the fifth century,

* See Tiraboschi, "Storia della Litterat. Italiana," towards the end of tom. iv. Also the Dissertation of Lami on the Italian painters and sculptors who flourished from the year 1000 to 1300; in the Supplement to Vinci's "Trattato della Pittura," printed at Florence in 1792; and see Moreni, P. iv. p. 108.

+ See the oration of Mon. Francesco Carrara "Delle Ledi delle beile Arti," Roma, 1758, 4to., with the accompanying notes, in which the two Bianchini, Marangoni, and Bottari, their illustrators, are cited.

subsequently continued until our own times. The second is the decoration of the whole church of San Urbano, where there are several evangelical acts represented on the walls, along with histories of the Titular Saint and St. Cecilia, a production which, partaking in nothing either of the Greek lineaments or style of drapery, may be attributed more justly to an Italian pencil, which has subscribed the date of 1011.* Many more might be pointed out, existing in different cities; as, for instance, the picture at Pesara, of the patron saints of the city, illustrated by the celebrated Annibale Olivieri, which is earlier than the year 1000; those in the vaults of the cathedral at Aquileja, † the picture at Santa Maria Primerana at Fiesole, which seems the work of that or the succeeding age; and the picture at Orvieto which was formerly known by the name of S. Maria Prisca, but is now generally called S. Brizio.§ I say nothing of the figures of the Virgin formerly ascribed to St. Luke, now supposed to be the production of the eleventh or twelfth century, as I shall have to treat of them at the opening of the third book. The painters of those times were, however, of little repute; they produced no illustrious scholars, no work worthy of marking an era. The art had gradually degenerated into a kind of mechanism, which, after the models afforded by the Greek workers in mosaic employed in the church of St. Mark, at Venice,|| invariably exhibited the

* Pointed out to me by Signor D'Agincourt, a gentleman deeply versed in antiquities of this sort.

†There were similar remains in the choir, the design of which I have seen. They were covered over in 1733. Among other curiosities was the portrait of the patriarch Popone, of the Emperor Conrad, and his son Henry the design, action, and characters, like the mosaics at Rome; executed about the year 1030. See Bartoli "Antichità di Aquileja," p. 369; and Altan," Del vario Stato," &c. p. 5.

The figure of our Lady is retouched; but two miniatures, attached to it, are better preserved; the one represents a man, the other a woman : and their drapery is in the costume of that period. The figures are reversed in the engraving of them, which is published.

§ See P. della Valle in the preface to Vasari, p. 51.

A few pictures by superior Greek artists remain, which are very good. Of this number is a Madonna, with a Greek inscription, at the church of S. Maria in Cosmedin at Rome. There is also one at Camerino said to have come from Smyrna; and I know of no Greek picture in Italy better executed or better preserved.

same legends, in which nature appeared distorted rather than represented. It was not till after the middle of the thirteenth century that any thing better was attempted; and the improvement of sculpture was the first step towards the formation of a new style.

The honour of this is due to the Tuscans; a nation that from remote antiquity disseminated the benign light of art and learning throughout Italy; but it more especially belongs to the people of Pisa. They taught artists to shake off the trammels of the modern Greeks, and to adopt the ancients for their models. Barbarism had not only overwhelmed the arts, but the maxims necessary for their re-establishment. Italy was not destitute of fine specimens of Grecian and Roman sculpture; but she had long been without an artist who could appreciate their value, much less attempt to imitate them. Little else was executed in those dark ages but some rude pieces of sculpture, such as what remains in the cathedral of Modena, in San Donato at Arezzo, in the Primaziale at Pisa, and in churches where specimens are preserved on the doors or in the interior. Niccola Pisano was the first who discovered and pursued the true path. There were, and still are, some ancient sarcophagi in Pisa, especially that which inclosed the body of Beatrice, mother of the countess Matilda, who died in the eleventh century. A chase, supposed to represent that of Hippolytus, is sculptured on it in basso relievo, which must be the production of a good school; being a subject which has been often delineated by the ancients on many urns still extant at Rome.

This

* The lateral gate of bronze is of very rude workmanship, as described by the Canon Martini, in his account of that temple, p. 85; and by Signor da Morrona, it is ascribed to the hand of Bonanno Pisano. From Vasari's life of Arnolfo, we learn that the same sculptor also executed the great gate of the Primaziale at Pisa, in bronze, about the year 1180, subsequently destroyed by fire. That of Santa Maria Nuova at Monreale, is likewise his. It is described by P. del Giudice, in his account of that church, and bears the name of Bonanno Pisano, with the date 1186. It is as rudely executed as the preceding one at Pisa, as I am assured by the Cavalier Puccini, accurately versed in every branch of the fine arts. If we wish to estimate the merit of Niccola Pisano, we have only to compare these two gates with the specimens which he gave us only a few years afterwards.

† Several specimens of similar productions also remain in Sicily, parti

was the model which Niccola selected; from this he formed a style which participated of the antique, especially in the heads and the casting of the drapery; and when exhibited in different Italian cities, "it inspired artists with a laudable emulation to apply to sculpture more assiduously than they had before done," as we are informed by Vasari. Niccola did not attain to what he aspired. The compositions are sometimes crowded, the figures are often badly designed, and show more diligence than expression. His name, however, will always mark an era in the history of design, because he first led artists into the true path by the introduction of a better standard. Reform in any branch of study invariably depends on some rule, which, promulgated and adopted by the schools, gradually produces a general revolution in opinion, and opens a new field to a succeeding age.

About 1231, he sculptured at Bologna the urn of San Domenico, and from this, as a remarkable event, he was named "Niccola of the Urn." He afterwards executed, in a much superior style, the Last Judgment, for the cathedral of Orvieto, and the pulpit in the church of San Giovanni, at Pisa ; works that demonstrate that design, invention, and composition, received from him a new existence. He was succeeded by Arnolfo Fiorentino, his scholar, the sculptor of the tomb of Boniface VIII. in San Pietro at Rome; and by his son Giovanni, who executed the monuments of Urban IV. and of Benedict IX. in Perugia. He afterwards completed the great altar of San Donato, at Arezzo, the cost of which was thirty thousand gold florins; besides many other works which remain in Naples and in several cities of Tuscany. Andrea Pisano was his associate, and probably also his disciple in Perugia, who, after establishing himself in Florence, ornamented with statues the cathedral and the cularly at Mazzerra and Girganti. At Palermo, the tomb of the Empress Constance II., who died in the year 1222, is decorated with an antique sculpture in basso relievo, representing a chase, which is conjectured to represent that of Æneas and Dido, and which is well engraved. See the work entitled, "I Regali Sepolchri del Duomo di Palermo riconosciuti e illustrati. Nap. 1784."-W. R.

Another specimen of this sort is said to be in the collection of Mr. Blundell, at İnce.-W. R.

church of San Giovanni in that city; and in twenty-two years finished the great gate of bronze "to which we are indebted for all that is excellent, difficult, or beautiful in the other two, which are the workmanship of succeeding artists." He was, in fact, the founder of that great school that successively produced Orcagna, Donatello, and the celebrated Ghiberti, who fabricated those gates for the same church, which Michelangelo pronounced worthy to form the entrance of Paradise. After Andrea, we may notice Giovanni Balducci, of Pisa, whose era, country, and style, all lead us to suppose him one of the same school. He was an excellent artist, and was employed by Castruccio, lord of Lucca, and by Azzone Visconti, prince of Milan; where he flourished, and left, among other monuments of his art, the tomb of San Pietro Martire, at S. Eustorgio, so highly praised by Torre, by Lattuada, and by various learned illustrators of Milanese antiquities.* Two eminent artists, natives of Siena, proceeded from the school of G10. Pisano, namely, the two brothers, Agnolo and Agostino, who are commended by Vasari as improvers of the art. Whoever has seen the sepulchre of Guido, bishop of Arezzo, decorated with an infinity of statues and basso relievos, representing passages of his life, will not only admire in them the design, which was the work of Giotto, but the execution of the sculpture. The brothers also executed many of their own designs in Orvieto, in Siena, and in Lombardy, where they brought up several pupils, who for a long period pursued their manner, and diffused it over Italy.

To the improvement of sculpture succeeded that of mosaic, through the efforts of another Tuscan, belonging to the order of minor friars, named Fra Jacopo, or Fra Mino da Turrita, from a place in the territory of Siena. It is not known whether he was instructed in his art by the Romans or by the

*In the "Guide to Milan," Sig. Abate Bianconi observes, "that these are beautiful works, and that nothing superior is to be seen in any work of that age. Vasari, by omitting this very eminent Pisan, and not mentioning these works, although he was, according to his own account, at Milan, has given reason to believe, that he was not over anxious in his researches." p. 215.

See also Giulini and Verri, as quoted by Sig. da Morrona in tom. i. pp. 199,200.